Shroud

The Shroud, as recalled from the Xyn. Note its highly ethereal, almost heaven-esque qualities, such as an abundance of clouds, open skies and vast beauty.

The Shroud is the conscious location in which the Xyn psionically slumber in a state of mass-species dormancy. It is incredibly unknown, yet the Xyn maintain that its existence is real and parallel to the reality we experience with the senses. For the past 6,000 or so years, the Xyn were 'asleep' within the Shroud, after an event whereby the Xyn entered the Shroud during the Galactic Era of Struggle. It was only when the first Xyn were awoken by the Drudari in -2 PA that they have began a gradual return into the Galaxy.

Xyn are known to experience the borderline of an alternative reality within the Shroud, living never-ending lives. The passage of time is unknown within the Shroud.

Xyn scientists, mystics and philosophers have all theorised that the Shroud is in fact the location in which psionics emerge from and thus has a special connection to the Xyn. It is also theorised that the when one travels through the Winds, for the briefest of moments, they have entered a Shroud-like domain over reality.

Such experiences of alternative lives leads to much of the knowledge the Xyn had on the galaxy and its events 6,000 years ago, supposedly, 'difficult to discern from dream'.

Brugmansia Solanaceae described it as "The most splendid of places. Where there is no malice, hate, anger or war. Where there is no need for food or water. Where there is nothing but camaraderie, community and the collective. Yet even as I say this, all dreams must come to an end."

Entering the Shroud

Over 6,000 Standard Galactic Years ago, the Xyn vanished as a polity on the Galactic Stage. The Ancient Cosmic Hierophancy virtually ceased to exist overnight, as the Xyn retreated into a self-contained psionically induced slumber in the Shroud. In preparation for this event, the Xyn seemingly constructed immense temple-like structures to serve as what were, in essence, mausoleums for the living.

The event perpetually kept the Xyn in a stasis like condition on their worlds. Within this stasis the Xyn experienced, as they have explained, a life that never-changed. A consistent existence with no knowledge or conception of galactic time. This psionic projection of their consciousnesses seemingly preserved their bodies in their current status.

Known amongst the Xyn as Entering the Shroud, The Retreat and The Great Slumber, living within the Shroud seemingly has no altered Xyn society. At least it does not appear as such.

Asteraceae described her experience within the Shroud as "A wonderful experience, where we as a species connected together on levels that we had only ever experienced few times before. We became there and then. It reinvigorated us as befitting of our own status as 'Children of the Interstellar Winds'."

The Xyn hold and believe that within the Shroud these never-ending lives were physically and mentally real, and as such many Xyn struggle to tell what occurred within the Shroud and what occurred before entering it.